A Soldier's Christmas
by SereneLemons
Summary: After a few months of deployment, Eli celebrates her second Christmas as a soldier on the front lines. In this unusual holiday season, she manages to make an interesting friend from the other side of the trench. WWI AU.
1. Chapter 1

The packed snow under Maki Nishikino's boots crunched as she trudged her way through the trenches towards Eli Ayase's room. Well, "room" might be giving it too much credit. The barracks were just holes dug into the dirt walls with a crude wooden frame installed to prevent cave-ins. Each hole was big enough for four people to live in with just enough comfort so that sleeping there was still preferable over a foxhole in the middle of no man's land. Rooms were dug into both sides of the trench walls, with each squad assigned two rooms facing each other.

When Maki pulled aside the privacy curtain, she found Eli still fast asleep in her rack. With a sigh of disappointment, she leaned her rifle against the wall and shook Eli by the shoulders.

"Hey, Eli, wake up. It's your turn for watch."

"Wait, what?" Eli managed to yawn out while rubbing her eyes. "What, uh, what time is it?"

"It's almost four in the morning and you have watch. Which you would know if you had read the watch bill for once."

"Aw, come on, Maki, you're supposed to do that for me," Eli said with a sheepish grin.

"You. Are just an asshole."

"Guilty as charged." As Eli stood up, she clenched her stomach. "Holy shit, I can still feel Nico's 'mystery meat' stew eviscerating me. I should have listened to you."

"Something you should do more often. I'm pretty sure some unlucky rat managed to fall in the pot when she wasn't looking. Anyway, I'll see you in a bit."

As Maki left, Eli fumbled with her boots and helmet, somehow getting them on in a decent span of time. Then, she made sure her ammo pouches were full, grabbed her rifle and headed out towards the front line trench.

* * *

"I relieve you of your post," Eli said while saluting.

Maki returned the salute. "I stand relieved." With relief present and gear in hand, she started walking back to the barracks.

Before Maki left her sight, Eli called out, "Don't have too much fun with Nico while I'm gone!"

Snapping her head back instantly, Maki hissed, "You shut your mouth."

"Relax, I'm just teasing."

Eli turned around and faced the private who was her watch partner. "You ever get the feeling that she secretly hates my guts?"

"Whatever you say, lance corporal."

The rest of the night was quiet and uneventful.

* * *

"Fall in!"

In a clearing near the barracks, Eli's company gathered for morning formation, managing to squeeze everyone into the tight space dug out between trenches. As a squad leader, she stood all the way on the left, while Maki stood somewhere in Eli's row. In front of the whole formation, the master sergeant stood by, waiting to give out the daily announcements.

"In order to get into the holiday spirit, command has decided to relax work today so that we can get a little Christmas Eve party. Have fun, relax, but keep it under control. The brass is planning an operation for the day after Christmas. Yes, I know it's stupid and unfair, but I can't argue. Additionally, we are giving you all a small present. We've brought in enough chocolate so that everyone can get ten grams."

"Only ten grams? What the fuck, master sergeant? Last year we got more than that and beer as well!" As always, Nico was the first to mention beer.

"You try finding semi-decent chocolate when every factory on the continent is making either bombs or bandages. And the brass said no beer across the entire front this year. They don't want you all wasted if we get attacked. Remember what happened on New Year's?"

Murmurs of agreement spread through the formation. "I bet whoever was in charge of that decision got court-martialed to hell," someone whispered.

"Our position here is too important to lose to you assholes being hungover during an assault. That is all for this morning. Sergeant, carry out the plan of the day."

"Aye-aye, master sergeant." As the master sergeant left, the Charlie sergeant turned around to face the formation. "Alright, Charlie, today we have watch from 1200 to 1600. That leaves us free for Christmas activities later in the night should you wish to participate. Until then, we have free time. Fall out."

At that moment, Eli, who had been zoning out until the mention of chocolate, laid out the perfect plan for racing to the front of the supply line. She visualized every possible path and shortcut and was almost at the part where she channels her inner Moses to part the huge crowd and finally get to the front when she was knocked out of her reverie by a firm slap across the face.

Horrified by the fact that she had not moved from her spot during morning formation and was instead staring at Maki's cheeky smirk, Eli screamed, "What the hell was that for?"

"Stopping you from probably starting a fight because someone was between you and your chocolate. Again."

"Oh. How did you know?" Eli chuckled sheepishly.

"You had that stupid grin of yours that only shows up around chocolate."

Eli raised her hand to object, but quickly deflated after realizing she had nothing to counter with.

"And besides," Maki continued, "I think it's better to wait until the party to get our chocolate. Fits the mood better or something."

Eli slowly blinked twice. "Who knew someone like you could say something so smart?"

As soon as the words left Eli's mouth, Maki threw a swift punch to her gut. As she folded up and clenched her stomach, Eli laughed the whole way down to the ground.

* * *

"Hey, Eli, ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go."

After leaving their barracks and heading off to the common area, Eli and Maki ran into two people who were walking in the opposite direction, toward the front line trenches.

"Hey, you two. Where are you going?" Eli asked.

"Into no man's land, lance corporal. A few of our companies got together to hold a party with the blueshirts halfway between the trenches. They've got a fire going and some food," one of the privates explained.

"Isn't that dangerous, hanging out in the middle of no man's land?" Eli replied.

"I don't think anyone's heartless enough to start a battle on Christmas."

"I guess," Eli shrugged as the two privates continued walking away. "Maki, what do you think? Should we go?"

Maki pondered for a moment. "It sounds fun. And we can always leave if we feel uncomfortable."

Seeing no harm in at least checking out the party first, Eli and Maki climbed over rows of barbed wire as they walked out towards no man's land. When they finally reached their destination, they were taken aback at the scene before them.

A stack of crates was haphazardly set up in a pyramid shape with a burning torch on the top in a crude, improvised "Christmas tree." A circle of campfires, where soldiers from both sides were huddled around for warmth and conversation, surrounded the tree. Off to the side, more crates were pushed together to form a long table of sorts, holding water drums and tins of appetizing, actually decent food.

"Wow, this is way better than I expected," Maki mumbled.

Eli's stomach growled as if it was trying to jump out of her body onto the table. "I'm gonna go grab some food. Want to come with?"

"I want to go see what they're doing over there. I'll catch you later I guess."

As they went their separate ways, Eli made a beeline for the food table. There wasn't much, but it was obvious that the officers on both sides made arrangements for their soldiers to have as festive a Christmas as possible. Eli only took a few pieces, not wanting to hog all the food to herself, and found a seat next to an empty fire. She was about to dig in when Maki came back.

"Hey, Eli, they're setting up a soccer game. Us against the blueshirts. Want to join?"

"Nah, I'll stay here and talk to people."

Maki shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Eli only took her first bite into a piece of canned peach when she caught a glimpse of another person sitting by herself at another campfire. The soldier's dark blue uniform combined with her dark blue hair made her difficult to see, even with the glow of the fires. She appeared to be writing a letter in a tiny notebook.

Intrigued, Eli picked up her gear and plopped herself down next to the stranger. "Hey there, what are you writing?"

Shocked by the sudden appearance of another person right in front of her, the other soldier nearly dropped her writing utensils as her helmet almost slipped off her head. "H-hi, just writing a letter," she managed to blurb out.

"Ohhh, to who?"

"My girlfriend back home."

"Oh wow, that's really sweet. I should write back home too, but either I don't have time or I just don't feel like it. Please don't tell my girlfriend that."

Feeling comfortable in front of the stranger, the other soldier laughed in amusement.

Eli stretched out a hand. "By the way, my name's Eli Ayase."

The soldier accepted the invitation and shook her hand. "Umi Sonoda. Nice to meet you."

"So, anyway, before I shipped out, my girlfriend made me promise that I would write to her. In the time that I've been here, I've written one letter to her. Technically that still counts!" Eli sighed and ate a peach slice before quietly chuckling. "Oh god, if I don't die here first she'll definitely kill me when I get back."

"Don't say that, I'm sure she absolutely loves you if she's willing to put up with your antics like that."

"Yeah, I know." Eli wolfed down another slice of peach. "So what do you write to your girlfriend?"

"Usually I tell her about what happened since the last letter and some poetry as well. She's a fashion designer and says that my poems inspire her." Umi shrugged. "Don't know how it works, but it does, I guess."

Gradually becoming comfortable with the stranger, Umi relaxed and put away her stationery. Eli, on the other hand, kept talking and eating her peaches until the tin was empty. Umi didn't mind, listening intently to every word Eli said.

"And then when she took a huge bite of cake and got a mouthful of caramel, the look on her face was so adorable I just wanted to squish it forever! But I did have to sleep on the couch for a week after that so, would not recommend doing that again."

Bursting into laughter, Umi exclaimed, "That's so terrible! You deserved every second of that!"

"It's not my fault she's so cute when I tease her like that!"

The laughter died down and the two soldiers sat in comfortable silence. Eli sprawled her legs out and put her arms behind her for support while Umi pulled out her stationary and began writing again. Remembering the chocolate in her pocket, Eli rummaged around her coat before pulling out the small square, still unmelted.

Eli broke off half and held it out. "Umi, you want some chocolate?"

Umi stared for a bit, unsure how to respond.

"Sure, yeah. I haven't had some in a while."

Cherishing every bite, Eli and Umi nibbled away at their chocolate.

Eli was the first to finish. "Hey, after the war is over, do you want to get a beer with me or something?"

"I'd like that. I can bring my girlfriend along so you can meet her too."

"I'm looking forward to it. I'll treat you guys to the best beer in the world." Eli stood up and stretched her arms out. "I should go to sleep now. Probably got a lot of work tomorrow."

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Eli. I hope we'll see each other again."

"It was nice meeting you, too. See you around, Umi."

Soon after Eli started walking back towards her barracks, she found Maki staring at her with another one of her cheeky grins and her arms crossed across her chest.

Eli rubbed around her cheeks. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"I saw that."

Sticking her hands into her coat pockets, Eli walked past Maki without a glance. "Saw what?"

Maki turned around and caught up to Eli, walking side by side with her. "I didn't think it was possible for you to make more than three friends."

"Go fuck yourself with a cactus."

"I'm about 99% sure those don't grow around here."


	2. Chapter 2

In the early morning hours before sunrise, thousands of artillery cannons erupted in sync, delivering a hurricane of steel rain. Even though the batteries were almost ten miles away, their thunderous roar still managed to wake Eli, who rubbed her eyes and stretched out to yawn before falling out of her rack, landing face first into the dirt.

Honestly, what kind of asshole plans an operation for the day after Christmas?

With all hope of going back to sleep gone, Eli dragged her body up to get dressed before the breakfast ration line grew too long.

Now that Christmas was over, breakfast reverted back to the usual medley of bland hardtack biscuits and a "cake" of some sort of vaguely meat-like substance held together by what was claimed to be cooked oats. The one saving grace in Eli's ration box was the delicate packet of tea. It was sufficiently bearable such that it outshined every other aspect of her rations, but it wasn't the type of tea she would serve to her girlfriend's parents. Yeah, Nozomi would definitely probably kill her, then resurrect her somehow only to kill her again. Maybe.

With the rest of her rations finished, Eli slipped the tea packet into her pocket and grabbed a tin cup from her kit. There wasn't much in the way of kettles for heating up water, so Eli headed off to the front line trench for the next best alternative: the machine guns. Each machine gun was cooled using a water tank connected on the side, which would fill up with hot boiling water in just a few short minutes of firing. The resulting concoction would often taste of machine oil, but that didn't stop those who were desperate enough for their tea.

While artillery was still booming all around, Eli managed to shout out, "Good morning, would you mind giving me some hot water?" at the first machine gun crew she could find.

"Comin' right up." The three-man crew scurried around with all the preparations before the gunner finally pulled the trigger, firing the machine gun in short bursts. Eli could see the muzzle flashes and the ejected shells flying into the dirt, but could barely hear the whisper of the machine gun against the roar of the artillery.

Before too long, the cooling tank was filled up with hot, boiling water. The crew commander opened up the lid and tilted the tank down, pouring out the water into Eli's tin cup. Eli watched with anticipation as the tea packet slowly rose up with the water before she thanked the crew and headed back to her barracks.

As she finished up her oil tea, Eli saw Maki packing up all of her gear. It was a semi-ritual that Maki performed before every operation, so Eli tried her best not to disturb Maki as she gathered up her own equipment. With rifle in hand and pouches filled to the brim with ammo and crude bandages, Eli headed off to the staging area at the front line trenches.

A few of the other squad leaders were already there, so Eli found a little area so that her squad would fit once everyone arrived. She sat down in the damp dirt with her rifle between her legs and pulled out a small metal envelope. With delicate motions, she pulled out the precious photograph contained within. Eli's eyes softened as she stared at the beautiful photo of Nozomi with all kinds of flowers intertwined into her hair. The picture was starting to fade and has definitely seen better days, but none of that took away any of Nozomi's elegance. Eli flipped over the photo and read Nozomi's smooth, flowing handwriting: "You better come back to me in one piece!"

Eli put the photo envelope back into her left chest pocket as she saw the staging area fill up. She leaned up against the wall and made sure that her entire squad was here. Everyone stood by in anticipation.

Eli took a moment to ease up and fix her helmet strap. After she was done straightening her uniform, she looked down the trench at her squad again. To her left, Nico was fast asleep with her rifle clutched between her arms and legs. To her right, Maki was twirling that little bit of her hair again. Eli often wondered how Maki felt comfortable charging into battle with the red cross painted brightly on her helmet, which basically made her head into a giant "shoot me here" target, but since Maki made it back each time perfectly fine, it was best not to question it. The rest of her squad was patiently waiting, leaned against the dirt wall.

Eli looked down at her watch. Five minutes until the artillery stops. "Nico, wake up," Eli urged as she shook her by the shoulders. Without a word, Nico stretched out and stumbled over herself a bit before grabbing the wall to stand up. Maki reached across Eli to hand a canteen to Nico, who took a long swig before handing it back.

As everyone waited along the wall, the battlefield was steadily becoming quieter. Soon, the last screech of a flying shell passed over Eli's head and all was silent for a brief moment. Without missing another beat, the shrill cries of officer's whistles pierced the air. Eli shouted, "Let's go boys! Up and over!" As the squad leader, she was the last one to climb the ladder out of the trench, making sure all of her squadmates were accounted for. The smoke and dust whipped up by the artillery barrage still hadn't cleared, but she didn't need to see muzzle flashes to know that the enemy machine guns were hammering away with their ensemble of clicks and clacks.

Sprinting as fast as her legs could take her, Eli dove into a crater, the rest of her squad following close behind. Focusing on the sound and muzzle flashes of the machine gun post directly in her straight line of sight, Eli waited until the crew was reloading before climbing out and dashing to the next crater. With smoke and dirt clouding up all around, she continued to leap and bound across no man's land toward an opening between two machine gun crews.

While Eli was lying down in a hole looking at the trench in front of her, Maki rushed in and plopped herself down right next to Eli. Pointing at the closer machine gun to the left, Eli shouted, "Maki! Grenade!"

Maki rolled over, grabbed a grenade out of her pouch, and pulled out the pin. Keeping her hand tight on the spoon, Maki took a quick look at her target before lobbing it as hard as she could and ducked back down into the crater.

Confident that Maki hit her mark, Eli counted to three and rushed out of the crater towards the trench sprinting like a madman. When she arrived, Eli stuck her rifle into the ground for leverage as she slid down into the trench.

Eli inched down the right side with her rifle raised. Each step was calculated, only taken when she was sure that it was safe to move forward. She came to a curve in the trench and leaned against the wall, carefully turning with the corner to scan the other side of the curve.

She saw a blur of blue and fired a shot in sheer panic. Her sweaty, shaky hands barely held the rifle up as Eli struggled to tell her body what to do. She felt the metal photo envelope in her pocket move back and forth, pushed by her panicking heart beating for its life.

Her first shot missed, and the other soldier had already hopped down from her machine gun, fumbling with her equipment belt to start pulling out her sidearm.

Come on, come on, please reload, please reload.

Her hand slipped on the bolt again. With all hope of fine motor controls gone, Eli threw her rifle forward in hopes of at least distracting the other soldier while she pulled out her entrenching tool. A much cruder weapon, it didn't care that Eli no longer had control of her fingers.

With a ferocious roar, Eli charged forward as the other soldier brought her sidearm up. In one quick swing, Eli struck the other soldier's hand, steel easily breaking bone and knocking the pistol aside. The other soldier grabbed a bunch of dirt with her one good hand and threw it in Eli's face in a desperate attempt to get away.

Tears streamed down as her eyes furiously attempted to flush out the dirt. Her lungs were at their capacity. Her heart was about to burst. Her body begged her to stop.

But how could she?

She can't die here. Not here. Not when she had a promise to return to Nozomi in one piece.

She begged her body to keep going. Against the screams of every fiber of her being, Eli forced her arms to swing. Again. And again. And again. She couldn't see anything, but the recoil of her hits and each painful wail told her that she was hitting her mark.

Her tears kept streaming and her hands kept swinging until she no longer heard hoarse gasps of anguish, but only the rhythm of cold steel striking soft fabric and flesh.

Eli's exhausted body collapsed into a pile on the ground. She dropped her entrenching tool and pushed herself back away from the soldier towards the trench wall. Her breathing was slowing down. Her hands weren't shaking as much. As soon as she felt her back against the wall, she reached up to scratch the dirt out of her eyes. It was over. She survived.

Eli was hesitant to look, but she brought herself to see what she had done. The other soldier's horribly disfigured body laid, sprawled in a bloody mess. Bits of flesh clung to her blue uniform and blood was pouring out, soaked up by the dirt. Out of the corner of her eye, Eli caught a glimpse of the soldier's hair. It was hidden under her helmet, but the little bit that stuck out was dark and an oddly familiar blue.

Despite the fact that she was exhausted, Eli sprang forward and frantically crawled towards the soldier. No, no, no, please no. She tried looking at her face, but it was so horribly beaten that there was no longer a human resemblance. Instead, she reached around the neck looking for her dog tags.

She sat back down against the trench wall. As the cold winter rain started pouring down, Eli slowly opened her hand and read the dog tag:

Sonoda

Umi

102103150419

A Pos


	3. Epilogue

2 Years Later

* * *

Walking around in a foreign country all by herself was scary enough, but being a soldier occupying a foreign country was terrifying. Everywhere she walked, Eli could feel the judgmental eyes of the civilians staring daggers at her, as if they all wanted nothing more than to string her up on a lamppost as a symbol of resistance. The only times she felt like she could let her guard down was during liberty, when she could wear regular clothes and a massive scarf to conceal her face.

However, today Eli was more nervous than usual, even though she bought an even bigger scarf. She constantly unbuttoned and buttoned her coat, her legs shook as if they couldn't support her body anymore, and she worked up a massive sweat despite the winter cold.

She soon arrived at her destination, a simple apartment in a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. Eli reached into her pocket again, reaching for the letter Umi was writing on Christmas. She looked at the address again and made sure that she was at the right place. Stopping past the front garden and the small fountain where birds were chirping, Eli hesitated to knock on the front door. Instead, she recited the speech she prepared for two years one more time.

It was now or never. She knocked on the door. A few seconds later, it opened slightly, but Eli could see someone's eyes peeking out.

"Hello, is this the home of Kotori Minami?"

The door opened and a woman stepped into the doorway. She spoke quietly and slowly, as if she were exhausted. "Yes, that is me. How can I help you?" Her bags were drooping and she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

In that instant, seeing Kotori's expression made Eli forget every word of her speech. "Uh, I-I have this letter for you." Eli swallowed the lump in her throat. "It's from Umi."

Kotori's eyes narrowed before she accepted the letter. "Oh." She ran her thumb across the top of the envelope. "How did you know Umi?"

An itch suddenly appeared on the back of Eli's neck and she shot her hand back to scratch it. "I was in the supply division of her company and we worked together sometimes," she mumbled while staring at the ground.

If Kotori noticed Eli's nervous fidgeting or saw through her lie, she gave no indication at all. "I see."

The two women stood in silence. Kotori stared at the envelope in her hands. Eli stared at the ground, sweating bullets.

"Thank you."

Before Eli could raise her head up, the door was closed. She blinked twice and sprinted away faster than she ever had before in her life.


End file.
